in_array() and multidimensional array

Question

I use in_array() to check whether a value exists in an array like below,

$a = array(\"Mac\", \"NT\", \"Irix\", \"Linux\");
if (in_array(\"Irix\"         


        

Answer 1

I was looking for a function that would let me search for both strings and arrays (as needle) in the array (haystack), so I added to the answer by @jwueller.

Here's my code:

/**
 * Recursive in_array function
 * Searches recursively for needle in an array (haystack).
 * Works with both strings and arrays as needle.
 * Both needle's and haystack's keys are ignored, only values are compared.
 * Note: if needle is an array, all values in needle have to be found for it to
 * return true. If one value is not found, false is returned.
 * @param  mixed   $needle   The array or string to be found
 * @param  array   $haystack The array to be searched in
 * @param  boolean $strict   Use strict value & type validation (===) or just value
 * @return boolean           True if in array, false if not.
 */
function in_array_r($needle, $haystack, $strict = false) {
     // array wrapper
    if (is_array($needle)) {
        foreach ($needle as $value) {
            if (in_array_r($value, $haystack, $strict) == false) {
                // an array value was not found, stop search, return false
                return false;
            }
        }
        // if the code reaches this point, all values in array have been found
        return true;
    }

    // string handling
    foreach ($haystack as $item) {
        if (($strict ? $item === $needle : $item == $needle)
            || (is_array($item) && in_array_r($needle, $item, $strict))) {
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}